Incredible Raw Image of Saturn’s Swirling North Pole (Saturn's Enigmatic Swirling Hexagon)

Universe Today ^ | November 28, 2012 | Jason Major

[lbryce]

Are you ready for this?

I know… WOW.

This swirling maelstrom of clouds is what was seen over Saturn’s north pole earlier today, November 27, by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. This is a raw image, acquired in polarized light, from a distance of 238,045 miles (383,097 kilometers)… all I did was remove some of the hot pixels that are commonly found on Cassini images taken with longer exposures.

Again… WOW.

My attempt at a color composite can be seen below, plus another treat:

It’s rough, and a little muddy because the clouds were moving between image channels (not to mention the blue channel image was rather underexposed) but here’s a color-composite of the same feature, made from images taken from a slightly different perspective:

Color composite of Saturn’s north polar vortex

Pretty darn cool… Cassini does it yet again!

The images above show an approximately 3,000-4,000-km-wide cyclone above Saturn’s north pole. Saturn is also known to have a long-lived hexagonal jet stream feature around its north pole as well, but that is not shown in those images as it runs along a lower latitude. Instead, you can see that HERE:

Saturn’s northern hexagon

Captured with wider angle in this image the hexagon structure can be made out as well as the vortex, which sits at the center just over the pole. Saturn’s hexagon is about 25,000 km (15,500 miles) in diameter… large enough to fit almost four Earths inside. This image was also acquired today.

An RGB composite of this feature is below:

Saturn’s northern hexagon – color composite

It’s been a few years since we’ve gotten such a good look at Saturn’s north pole… thanks to Cassini’s new orbital trajectory, which is taking it high above the ring plane and poles of Saturn, we now have the opportunity to view the gas giant’s dynamic upper latitudes again. I’m sure this is just a taste of what’s to come!

[lbryce]

The first look ever at Saturn's swirling North Pole were only partial images sent by the 1980's Voyager fly-by craft that surely must have confounded scientists with the enigmatic hexagonal shape. The theory at the time that the swirling hexagon on Saturn's North Pole were merely temporary was found to be emphatically wrong when twenty years later Cassini's cameras proved the daunting vision of the Saturn's swirling North Pole a permanent fixture of the planet.

[lbryce]

Saturn ping

[Zuben Elgenubi]

This is a raw image, acquired in polarized light, from a distance of 238,045 miles

That's about the distance from the earth to the moon.

Thanks for the post, marvelous photos.

[aquila48]

Great pictures!!

Any idea what the wind speeds are?

[US Navy Vet]

Isen’t MY G*D AWESOME!

[Captain Rhino]

Has there been any theorizing on the mechanism that is creating a standing hexagonal wind flow pattern at the North Pole?

[Darksheare]

I categorically deny that this is my fault.
Why?
I'm just preempting it.

[Night Hides Not]

I could’ve sworn I saw the Monolith at the left edge of the third picture.

[GoldMan]

Has there been any theorizing on the mechanism that is creating a standing hexagonal wind flow pattern at the North Pole?

[Gasshog]

probably only permanent in the sense of thousands of years. 20 yrs is nothing to the gas giant.

[lbryce]

I would have to agree. Technically speaking you are correct.
Rephrased, I would say, the Hexagon had more permanence than what was first thought.

[NormsRevenge]

Very cool images! Thanks!

[zeugma]

Awesome pics

[bunkerhill7]

Incredible Raw Image of Saturn’s Swirling North Pole (Saturn's Enigmatic Swirling Snowflake)

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks lbryce, an ‘extra, extra’ to APoD members.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks lbryce.

---

join or quit view topics view or post blog bookmark post new topic subscribe

---

[rarestia]

I saw a video, I believe it was on Science channel, that showed scientists swirling liquids at high speeds in a large, clear vat. They put numerous coloring compounds of different densities in it and managed to form a hexagon around the pole much the same way it is seen here.

I believe it’s due to Saturn’s rotation and the differences in atmospheric densities and wind speeds that cause this very cool-looking feature.

[martin_fierro]

Then there are the twin vortices on Venus' south pole.

[Lazamataz]

Venus has breasts.

[martin_fierro]

Oh no you did not.